Child of the Night
by SarahKayy
Summary: Ayashe Riddle is the long lost daughter of the Dark Lord. She is sent to Hogwarts and given the ultimate test of fighting the internal battle between Dark and Light, Evil and Good, Night and Day. Full summary inside.
1. Summary

Child of the Night

I am mainly basing this fanfic on the Harry Potter movies because I don't own the books and I haven't read them in a very long time. I will also be changing some of the plot and story line slightly to better fit with what I'm writing.

Disclaimer – I do not own any of J.K. Rowling's original characters, plot, etc.

Summary: Ayashe (pronounced eye-ee-sha) Riddle is the daughter of the Dark Lord. She was born in the same year as Harry and was only a couple months old when her father "died". Her mother died shortly after Aya (nickname pronounced eye-ah) was born. Nobody expected there to be a child amongst the Death Eaters so they didn't bother to look. Aya was left abandoned to the world until she was found by Bellatrix LeStrange, who took her to "Little Hangleton Orphanage". Bellatrix was later taken to Azkaban. Aya found herself growing up with humans that she despised for no good reason. She remembered her father's magic and soon found out that she could do magic for herself. The Malfoy's took her in and taught her magic. At the age of 10 she had learned more magic, especially dark magic than almost any other witch or wizard. When she is sent to Hogwarts with Draco, there is utter chaos with the faculty. This is the story of Aya's first year at Hogwarts and her battle between the Dark and Light, the Night and Day, the Evil and Good.

Enjoy,

SK


	2. Prologue

_Sorry I haven't updated in so long. My life has been so insanely busy. Luckily exams are over and I am going to try to spend more time on my writing, fanfics and originals. Anyways here is the prologue… enjoy._

Sheanna, Aya's mother's, POV

"Shhhh…" I whispered to my sweet daughter, picking her up from her crib and attempting to calm her cries of worry. We had to leave immediately. Tom had died earlier that night and now the Aurors were everywhere, searching. There were many Death Eaters who had been captured and sent to Azkaban already. I was scared for the well-being of my daughter. What would they do if they found the daughter of the Dark Lord?

I had loved Tom deeply, many years ago. But he had become… not himself lately. He now went by "Lord Voldemort" and he deeply frightened me. I had tried to accept the things he did, though. Love could hold you to the strangest things, including staying, and having a daughter with the most wanted and feared, murderer in the wizarding world.

I had been staying in our house on the outskirts of Little Hangleton for four months now with my Aya. We lived alone and were forbidden to leave. I hardly ever saw Tom anymore, except when he would come to briefly explain his missions and our escape route in the case that he failed.

*_Flashback* Earlier that night…_

"_Sheanna, as per usual, I came to give you a debrief of what is to happen tonight. You shall stay in this house unless otherwise notified by one of my trusty servants. Do you understand?" Tom's eyes bore into mine. _

"_Y-yes sir" I muttered, to afraid to do much else. I was really starting to dread his visits. I almost wish he would leave us alone to live in peace, but I would never say that aloud. _

"_Good. I am glad that you understand." He had now taken Aya out of my arms, though I was reluctant to let him, and was cradling her against his chest. "If something were to happen to my only heir I do not know what I would do."_

_I nodded to show my understanding. He did not even care for her. He just wanted somebody of his own blood to take over his place if something were to happen to him. _

"_I am going to the Potter residence tonight." He said coldly, "I doubt anything should happen but if so I want you to wait for the signal." Before another word was said, he shoved Aya back into my arms and apparated to his destination. I did not understand what "the signal" was but I would be on the lookout all night._

_*End of flashback*_

I was now running through the forest as fast as I could with Aya cradled tightly in my arms, and a black box resting on her stomach. This box contained a letter from me, if something should happen, I wanted her to know I loved her. The box also contained a small book of spells and a locket.

I could hear somebody shouting from behind me. They were gaining fast. If they found me I would surely be sent to Azkaban, as Tom had made sure I had the Dark Mark imprinted on my arm. Suddenly I stopped by a small hole in the side of a tree large enough to conceal Aya but small enough not to be seen by any passer-by's. I had bought myself some time by turning off of my path. I tucked a blanket under the tree and set Aya down in hope that she would be found before she starved to death. I set the box beside her small figure and pulled out my wand.

"I love you Aya, more than anything in the world." I whispered before turning around to complete my task. I did not have enough time to escape now and I was too frightened of Azkaban to let myself be found… alive.

I pointed my wand towards my chest and whispered the words I had heard Tom use many times before.

"Avada Kedavra" I saw a flash of green light and dropped my wand. It rolled under the tree beside Aya and then I saw nothing.

Bellatrix's POV

Great. Just great. He chose tonight to die? Seriously? I was really starting to hate that stupid Potter child. Now what were we all supposed to do except for spend the rest of our pathetic lives being chased around by Aurors?

I was supposed to tell Sheanna about this, but by the time I got to the house she was already gone. The Aurors must have already been here and knowing Sheanna, she probably took off at the first sight of them. I didn't really know her very well but I did know that she would rather choose flight over fight.

I ran into the forest desperately trying to find them. I knew Voldemort would kill me if I let his only heir die, as well as him.

"Crap!" I whispered as I almost ran straight into a group of Auror's who were all crowded around something… or somebody. I hid behind a tree and waited for them to leave with what I saw was Sheanna's body. As soon as they were gone I stood up and looked around. Surely they wouldn't leave a Death Eater's child alone in the forest. Unless… they couldn't find her.

I desperately began searching for where Sheanna must have placed her when I heard a small cry from the tree right beside me. I looked down to see Sheanna's wand sitting beside a box, and beside that box was the child. I picked the wand, the box and the child up in my arms and flew as fast as I could to a dark alleyway in Little Hangleton, where I ditched my broom. I began walking down the street as fast as I could, clutching the child tightly. Suddenly the child began to whimper. If she started to cry now our cover would be totally blown. But of course luck wasn't on my side as the stupid thing's cries got louder. I had to ditch it somewhere or I would be caught. I could just leave it on the street… but then Lucius would probably kill me himself.

Suddenly I looked up and all my worries were gone. "Little Hangleton Orphanage" read the sign above my head. I could dump the baby here, it could grow up, and Lucius could come collect it when it was old enough. Perfect! I still couldn't believe how smart I was. I opened the black box, dumped the wand in with the other belongings and set it, along with the kid on the door step. I rung the doorbell and left the tell the Malfoy's immediately about the child. Unfortunately, in my glee, I did not see the shadow following at a steady pace behind me.

"Why?" Lucius shouted at me, after my brief explanation of what had happened.

"I didn't want to go to Azkaban! Why else? And the stupid thing was going to give me away!" I screeched back.

"Can you at least tell us where the child is?" Narcissa chimed in.

"In an orphanage, I already told you." Why didn't they understand?

"What orphanage? What town?" If Cissy didn't shut up I swear I was going to tear her head off! Luckily Lucius butted in.

"It's not safe to speak here. There could be Aurors watching the manor. I suggest you leave Bella. Send us an owl in the next week with more information on the whereabouts of the child." He said ushering me out of the door.

"Fine," I spat, "But don't expect much."

I took out my wand and apparated home to Rodolphus, only to later find that I had led the Aurors straight to my home.


	3. Happy Birthday

_Since I only posted the prologue yesterday, I figured I should probably post the first chapter soon after. But it may not be out for a while because I want to make the chapters longer than the prologue but the prologue took an hour to write… so these chapters are definitely going to take a while. I may be able to update once a week. All of my other stories are kind of on hold right now and I'm mainly going to be concentrating on Child of the Night for the next couple weeks. I may also try to add some quick updates to my other stories but not as frequently as this one. The rest of the story will be in Ayashe's POV. _

My eyes shot open as I heard a loud thumping on my bedroom door.

"Time to wake up, Aya." Mrs. Laurie called before heading to the next door.

I sat up and looked around my room. I didn't own much. The orphanage would buy us a few new clothing items each season and I had a black guitar I had saved up for. At least I had a room to myself. Everybody else had to share the rooms but nobody wanted to share with me. None of the other children would play with me when I was little, either. But I didn't care. According to the adults, I was too moody. I would throw temper tantrums at everything. They had all learned to avoid me by now and I was glad.

I walked over to my full-length mirror, which was one of the only pieces of furniture in my room, picked up my brush and began brushing my long, dark hair. It looked black but was a very dark brown if you looked at it in the right lighting. My eyes were the same. They looked black but if you looked close enough they were a very dark brown. They contrasted greatly with my pale skin.

I threw on a pair of grey skinny jeans, my black converse, and threw a black sweater over my navy blue tank top. I didn't like a lot of colour in my wardrobe, or in anything really.

Today was May 8th and I knew very well what that meant. Today was my birthday. I was turning 10. _Oh joy. _

It's not like anybody really cared but they would all be forced to say happy birthday and attempt to talk to me. I honestly just wish they would leave me alone.

I opened my bedroom door with my mind, which I had discovered I had been able to do when I was 4. 6 years ago I had come downstairs for my breakfast but Mrs. Grace told me to wait while she took the other kids down the hall to meet our new teacher since we were all home-schooled. I didn't want to wait but I couldn't reach the cereal either. I had tried just about everything when I finally gave up and sat back down at the table. I guess that I figured if I stared at the cereal and concentrated on it hard enough it would just come floating down to me. Oddly enough this was exactly what it did. Ever since then I had been using this power to do simple tasks for me. I never let anybody else know about it, though. I knew it wasn't something normal.

I walked down the hall to the bathroom, picked up my tooth brush and began to brush my teeth. I went to go spit in the sink when I was shoved to the side by another girl my age and I spat all over the counter.

"Oops. I am _soooo_ sorry." Abbey said sarcastically and with a flip of her blonde hair turned to leave the bathroom. But I was too angry to just let her leave peacefully. Instead of tackling her like I felt like, I imagined a giant puddle of sticky maple syrup on the floor in front of her. The next thing I new she had slipped and was on the ground. Her _perfect, perfect _hair and her brand new clothes were absolutely covered in syrup. I couldn't resist the urge to laugh. She stood up and glared at me.

"This won't be the last you hear of me, Ayashe Riddle. I can promise you that." She tried to sound threatening but it sounded more like a whine. Then she ran down the hallway crying about her "beautiful hair".

"Oh… how will you _ever_ live?" I whispered sarcastically as I heard her bedroom door slam. I quickly made the syrup disappear and cleaned up where she had made me spit before walking down stairs to be greeted by a not very enthusiastic chorus of "Happy Birthday".

"Happy 10th birthday Aya!" Mrs. Laurie exclaimed. We all ate a special breakfast made for my birthday before each being given a small cupcake as well.

"Has anybody seen Abbey this morning?" Mrs. Grace asked.

"I saw her run into her room, earlier." Beccah, Abbey's best friend, said. And right at that exact moment, Abbey came down the stairs wearing new clothes, and her hair was soaked as if she was washed it under the sink.

"Abbey, where were you?" Mrs. Grace questioned.

"I had to change my clothes and wash my hair. Aya-" She paused for dramatic effect, "covered me in maple syrup!" She began to cry. Seriously? She sounded so fake.

"Is this true, Aya?" Both of the adults turned to look at me.

"No, of course not! Where would I get maple syrup? We don't even have any!" I said in shock and disbelief. They both turned back to Abbey and asked for what happened.

"Well… I went to the bathroom to go brush my teeth and Aya was in there. I politely asked her if she would move over and she refused. I left to come to the downstairs bathroom when I slipped on a giant puddle of maple syrup!" She paused again to catch her breath through her fake tears, "And the strange part was that it wasn't there when I came in or when I came back! It was like she just magically made it appear! She's a witch! Burn her!" She shrieked and began to charge at me. I was frozen in shock but fortunately Mrs. Laurie held her back.

"Magic? Witch? Are you sure you're okay Abbey?" Mrs. Laurie asked her, pressing a hand to her forehead.

"I'm fine. It's her!" She shrieked again before storming back up to her room again.

"Aya, would you mind telling me exactly what happened?" Mrs. Grace turned to me.

"I was brushing my teeth when Abbey came in to brush hers. On her way out she slipped and fell. I think she might have hit her head…" I said, like I was recalling a memory.

"We should get her looked at." Mrs. Grace said before heading up the stairs to get Abbey and take her to our private nurse.

"Anyways…" Mrs. Laurie tried to cover the awkward silence. Everybody was still staring at where Abbey had gone. "It's time for presents!" That seemed to snap everybody out of it.

"Here's the first one!" She exclaimed as she handed me a small red bag, "This is from all the children" I opened it to find a small box of chocolates.

"Thank-you" I said as I forced a smile for everybody. That seemed to cheer them up enough and I was answered by a chorus of "your welcome".

"This one is from Mrs. Grace and I" She handed me a small envelope. I opened it to find a small amount on a gift certificate for the only bookstore in town.

"I thought you'd like it, considering how much you love to read" She said, smiling at me.

"Thank-you very much and I'll make sure to tell Mrs. Grace thank-you as well." I couldn't wait to get out of here. I couldn't stand being the centre of attention and I felt like I would explode any minute now. Luckily my prayers were answered.

"That's all. Everybody please return to your regular schedule now." Mrs. Laurie said as she began to collect the dishes. Everybody else left but just as I was about to leave, Mrs. Laurie put a hand on my shoulder.

"There's one more present." She whispered as she handed me a black box and smiled softly, "I believe your parents left it with you and I thought you might like to open it in private." Since today was Saturday we did not have lessons but we did have chores to do. I really didn't have time. She must have seen the worry on my face.

"Don't worry, since today is your birthday we will give you the day off and may even take you downtown later to choose out a book."

"Thank-you" I replied, a little shocked. Nobody had ever been this nice to me before.

"We consider the tenth birthday to be special here. It is the day we believe you are mature enough to handle anything your parents left for you." She said almost sympathetically, "Now go on."

It really made me angry that they had kept this and not given it to me sooner. I decided to go out into the back yard to open it. Nobody should be out there because they would all be doing chores.

I went and sat on the bench on the far side of the yard. I sat the box on my lap and took a deep breath, preparing to open it. Slowly I lifted the lid to see a letter sitting on the top. On the front my full name was written in cursive. _Ayashe Tessah Riddle. _I ripped open the envelope to reveal the letter inside. I almost couldn't read it. I was too scared of what it would say but I couldn't help it as my eyes strayed down to the paper in my lap.

_My dear, sweet, Aya, _

_I know you must feel abandoned and alone right now and I am greatly sorry this had to happen. I never meant to leave you alone in the world. I just hope you can survive long enough to receive this letter and the contents of this box. _

_You must realize by now that you are not normal and if you are reading this letter, you should know that your father is most likely dead, as am I. I couldn't take the chance of them catching me. I couldn't be sent to that awful place. And if they did catch me I might give away your existence. I couldn't afford that. You mean too much to me. _

_I just wanted you to know that I love you with all of my heart and I am, again, so sorry your life turned out like this. I wish I could have given you a normal life, with normal parents, but wishes don't always come true. Please forgive me._

_Your loving mother, Sheanna _

As I finished the last line, one of my tears dripped onto the paper. I stared at the words on the paper for a minute before folding it and putting it back into the envelope. I had always thought that my parents had left me because they didn't want me. Now I knew that at least one of them cared. I reached into the box again to pull out a locket. It was a small silver heart with small emerald gems outlining it. I opened it up to reveal a picture of a woman with brown hair and blue eyes cradling a small baby to her chest on one side. The child must have been me, and the woman must have been my mother. On the other side of the locket was a small sentence written in cursive.

"_Dreams and wishes don't always come true, my Aya._

_But no matter dead or alive, I will always love you"_

I was now crying, which I had never let anybody see before. I set the locket on the box beside me and put my head in my hands. I thought it was bad enough that they were alive and just didn't care but I really wasn't sure if it was any better that they were dead and did care. I had been crying for about five minutes when I heard somebody start walking towards me. I didn't bother to see who it was. At the moment I really didn't care.

"So what's this?" I heard a voice say from in front of me. I looked up to see Abbey smiling wickedly while examining my locket which she must have grabbed while I was crying.

"Nothing" I snapped and reached to grab it back. Unfortunately she moved her hand just in time.

"I don't think it's nothing," She leered as she read the inside, "No matter _dead _or _alive… _oh… is your mommy _dead?_" That really pissed me off.

"What exactly happened to your mommy? Is she dead? Or was it just that she didn't care?" I sneered back, "Now give it back!" Her face twisted with rage at my last comment.

"No… I don't think I'm done with it yet." She smiled demonically as she waltzed over to the little stream flowing through the yard and dangled my locket between her fingers.

"Give it to me… Now!" I screeched. A growl erupted from my chest as she let it slip even closer to the end of her fingers.

"I think you deserve this after what you did to me this morning… don't you?" She taunted dangling it back and forth. In my peripheral vision I saw a small snake slither behind a bush. I didn't fully understand what I was doing when I began to speak to it. It felt natural to me.

"_Please help me?" _I asked it, _"I just need you to scare her so that she'll drop my locket and run away… please?" _For some reason it didn't surprise me when I got an answer.

"_Of coursssssse." _It hissed, "_She wassss bothering me thissss morning anywayssss"_

"What are you doing?" I snapped back out of it to see Abbey staring at me like I was speaking some foreign language, "What the heck did you just say to me?" She demanded.

"What do you mean?" I could have sworn I had been speaking English.

"You did all this hissing and-" She was cut off by her own scream as she spotted the snake coming towards her.

"Wha-what?" She screeched, "Get it away from me!" She dropped my locket and bolted.

"Snake! Snake! Somebody help me!" She screamed as she ran through the patio doors.

I walked over and picked up my locket. I examined it to make sure it hadn't been harmed and put it on before turning back to the snake.

"_Thanks" _I whispered. And as I thought, I got a reply.

"_Anytime, Mistresssss" _

**That took me sooo long to write! Wow! I started at about 8:45am and it is now noon! I definitely won't be able to update too often. I'm sorry. But please review? It really encourages me to write. It makes me feel like people are actually appreciating me taking my time to write this for them. Thnx, luv y'all. **

**Sarah-K**


	4. The Malfoys

After my episode with the snake and Abbey I grabbed the black box and headed back up to my room to reveal the remainder of the contents. They were quite strange. There was a wooden stick and a book called _Spells for Beginners_. I remembered my mother's note telling me I was different but not telling me how I was different.

I opened the book to find a note scribbled on the inside of the cover in the same handwriting as the letter.

_Aya, _

_I hope this will come in handy in the future when you have a wand. I dearly hope you know I will always be with you, my little witch. _

_Love, Sheanna_

I figured that the wooden stick was what my mother meant by "wand". Maybe she was insane... She said I was a witch. I didn't think witches existed but after all there were some pretty weird things going on. Talking to snakes was a big one. There was also the fact that I could make things appear, e.g. maple syrup. And I could make things move with my mind so I decided to give it a try.

I took the wand out of the box and flipped to the first page of the book...

The next two months or so passed without anymore incidents with Abbey. Every day in my spare time I would pull out the spell book and teach myself a new spell. It amazed me that I was able to do magic. I realized that, besides guitar and singing, it was one thing in life that I was actually good at. The book said that all spells were done with a wand but I came across about five that I could do without words and without a wand. It was referred to as "Wand-less Magic" and it was said to be very rare. Only very powerful witches and wizards could use this kind of magic. Nothing in the book explained how I could talk to snakes, though.

Over time I had become friends with the snake that scared Abbey. It was my first friend here. Eventually I started keeping it in my room and feeding it on a regular basis. It turned out that his name was Ahkzarr. Ahkzarr was the only one in this place I could talk to. We had normal conversations, except the fact that he always called me "Mistress". I was speaking in a language he called Parseltounge. He did not understand how we could communicate; only the heirs of Slytherin could talk to snakes. When I told him I had no clue who my father was it made him curious, but he was still happy to be my friend.

Mrs. Grace and Mrs. Laurie forgot about my book certificate so today I figured I would kindly remind them. After dressing in a pair of black denim shorts, a smoky grey strapless top, and my summer shoes, black platform flip flops, I headed downstairs to ask if I could go get a book today. Mrs. Grace told me she and Mrs. Laurie were very busy today but it would be fine if I had somebody else my age to go with me. She knew I didn't have any friends here so she decided to save me of my worry by suggesting she find somebody to go and send them up to my room.

Unfortunately, an hour and a half later when I opened my door, Abbey was standing there.

"Hi, loser" She sneered as she stood in my doorway fixing her purple dress.

"Hello, Abbey." I said as calmly as I could manage.

She frowned and said, not sounding very pleased, "Mrs. Grace asked me to go to the bookstore with you."

"Then why did you agree?" I asked questioningly.

"I'll take whatever I can to get out of this place, even if it is only for a few hours. Do you know how hard it is to be stuck here with a bunch of dorks 24/7? No, I bet you don't." She droned on "But anyways, I am not going into that lame bookstore with you. I am going to the Pharmacy across the street to buy hair product and perfume. You'd better be done in there by the time I get out or I'm leaving without you." She smirked evily, "And even though Little Hangleton is smaller than a... a..." She stuttered for a moment, thinking, "Something small." She improvised, "I know you would still probably get lost without me."

Even thought it was a very small town, I had only been out of the Orphanage a few times. Abbey was probably right considering the bookstore was on the other side of town.

"You wouldn't" I glare at her.

"Yes, actually, I would." She said smiling the most sickly sweet smile I had ever seen.

"Fine, let's go." I said, defeated, while turning off the lights in my bedroom and stepping into the hall.

"Uh-uh." Abbey said, blocking my way to the stairs, "You have to promise me something first."

"Fine, what?" I snapped. My patience was wearing thin.

"You don't talk to me or walk beside me. Basically pretend you don't know me."

"Why exactly is that?" I say sarcastically.

"I don't want anybody to see me conversing with a loser. Duh." She rolled her eyes and headed down the stairs. I followed quickly behind her.

"Okay, I promise." I said in the most impatient tone I can manage. It wouldn't be too hard. It's not like I ever wanted to talk to Abbey anyways. She just smirked at me before heading out the front door onto the street. I followed at a safe distance behind her down the block. The air was humid and the sun was shining very bright in the noon sky. Abbey was strutting down the sidewalk like she was a model or something with her big pink sunglasses over her face. I passed a few people but didn't really see who they were. I mainly kept my head down and only raised it every once in a while to make sure Abbey was still in front of me. We turned a few corners and came to the main street. Because I wasn't really watching where I was going, luck just had to make me bump into somebody and fall flat on my butt.

"Oh, I am so sorry!" I said quickly, standing up and brushing the dirt off my shorts. I was fine, except for a few scraped on my hands. The stranger just laughed. I looked up to see a boy my age with a thick shock of white-blonde hair and piercing blue-grey eyes.

"Why are you laughing?" I said glaring.

"I just ran into you and then you told me _you_ were sorry. Wow, this town is weird." He muttered shyly, "I am very sorry, though. Are you okay?" He said taking one of my scraped hands and examining it. I yanked it back quickly.

"Yes, I'm fine." I said quietly and began walking again, only to have him step in front of me.

"Are you sure?" He asked. I could see in his eyes that he really was concerned about me. But why would he be concerned about somebody he just met on the street? I didn't know. He looked like he belonged to a fairly wealthy family, so why would he be nice to somebody poor like me?

"Why do you even care?" I snapped. Something about this boy made me very edgy.

Maybe it was because he was so cute. Before he could answer Abbey appeared over his shoulder and interrupted.

"What's taking you so long, loser?" She sneered before finally resting her eyes on the boy in front of me like he was some kind of prize. It was sickening. Whatever.

"Hi." She said sweetly to him. "I'm Abbey. What's your name?"

"Ummm..." He hesitated for a moment before turning back to me, "Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." He said to me, completely ignoring Abbey. I could see the anger on her face. "What's your name?"

"Oh, nobody cares about who she is," Abbey dismissed me with a flick of her fingers. "Don't you want to know who I am?" She flirted. He just kept on ignoring her and waiting for my answer.

"I- I, umm" I wasn't sure if I should tell my name to a random stranger on the street. Finally I decided that it probably wouldn't matter.

"Aya… Ayashe Riddle," I see the recognition flash in his eyes at my name.

"We have to get going." I say pulling Abbey's elbow as I continue to walk down the street.

I turn to look at him as we walk away. He was still standing there. He lifted his head to meet my eyes and saw urgency in his expression before he quickly began walking in the opposite direction. It was the weirdest thing. Abbey turned to glare at me silently the rest of the way to the book store.

I entered the store feeling a little self-conscious still thinking about the boy, Draco, on the street.

"Can I help you with anything?" The man at the desk asked politely. He was thin, bald, and old with a short grey-brown beard and thick, heavy eyebrows.

"No, I'm just looking." I said, walking past the desk and into the sci-fi section of the store. I realized that I was the only customer at the moment. I was hoping to find another spell book somewhere but I had no idea where to look or if they would even have something like that. I began searching through a bin of old books on sale. At the very bottom I finally found what I was looking for. Blowing off the dust I read the title: _Offensive Curses for the Advanced Wizard. _The beginner's book had helpful and defensive spells but I was glad to finally find something different.

I walked quickly up to the desk to purchase the book, hoping that the clerk wouldn't read the title and assume I was crazy. Luckily he seemed to mind his own business as he examined the price tag of the book and I handed him my gift certificate. He slid the book into a bag for me to carry only giving me a curious glance as his eyes slid across the title.

I decided to look around a little longer for another book because I still had quite a bit of money left on the certificate. I had been looking in the mystery section when the door dinged signalling that somebody had entered the store. There were two sets of footsteps. One pair stopped at the front desk and a man with a gruff voice began speaking to the clerk about a book he was searching for. The other pair continued my way. I busied myself with examining the back of a murder-mystery-romance novel so that whoever had entered the aisle wouldn't try to start a conversation with me. Unfortunately that didn't work.

"You again?" I looked up to see the boy from the street, Draco, leaning against the shelf opposite me. He seemed to be studying me, almost as if he were trying to decide his opinion about me.

"Umm... yeah." I muttered, turning back to the book. But since it didn't work the first time, it obviously wasn't going to work the second time. My point was proven as he began talking again.

"So what are you doing here?" He asked, trying to start a conversation.

I held up the book in front of me. I wasn't even sure what the title was.

"_Murder at Genevieve's Ball," _He said reading the title while raising his eyebrows at me. I couldn't help blushing. I quickly returned the book to the shelf and turned to face him.

"I was just looking around." I said shyly. I didn't understand why I was being shy. I guess it was probably because there were no boys my age at the Orphanage. The oldest boy was only about 7 years old.

"Ahh." He considered this. "But that's not exactly what I meant."

I peeked at him curiously from under my thick black eyelashes.

"I meant what brings you to Little Hangleton?" He smiled a crooked smile and cocked one eyebrow at me.

"I live here." I replied quickly and shrugged. I didn't really like telling people that I lived in an Orphanage. "Why are you here? I mean, there's like nothing here." I said almost teasing.

"Oh," He laughed, "My father, Lucius, needed to come here for a few things and didn't trust me to stay out of trouble, so he brought me with him."

"Oh." I replied, trying to think of something else to say. Luckily I was saved as the man, who I assumed was Draco's father came down the aisle. He was fairly tall with long hair the same colour as Draco's and grey eyes that were much darker than Draco's.

"Draco, we must leave now-" Lucius cut off as he spotted me standing beside his son, "Who exactly is this?" He asked Draco with slight curiosity.

"This," Draco, paused to gesture at me a little too dramatically, "is Ayashe _Riddle_." He exaggerated my last name as his father's eyes went wide. I was beyond confused. There was recognition in his eyes as well.

"What exactly is going on?" I finally decided to confront them. Lucius turned to me before speaking.

"Well, Ayashe Riddle, I am Lucius Malfoy. I was a friend of your father."


	5. Author's Note

Hi... so... I know everybody hates author's notes but this one is kind of necessary and I'm posting it to all of my stories. PLEASE READ IT IF YOU ARE FOLLOWING/ALERTED TO ME OR ANY OF MY STORIES.

Some of you may have noticed that I've been incognito for over a year. In late 2012 I posted a whole bunch of summaries that I had planned to expand on but it just didn't happen. Life got in the way :/ I'M REALLY SORRY. Especially for the stories that I haven't updated since 2009! I just seemed to lose time and inspiration for them.

I'm now writing my own novels that I hope to have published someday. I'm also currently helping to create a plot line for a play that a friend and I are writing, directing, and producing (and possibly acting in! ;D) for our last year of high school. Aside from writing I'm doing dance classes and martial arts classes, I'm trying to get a job to help me afford to get where I want to go in life (since I am almost 18), and I'm trying to plan out my future (which is difficult when you want to be an actor). I also have to focus on my classes because I'm a perfectionist and have to get over 90% on every assignment. I only take higher-level courses which take even more time and focus.

Now that you've heard my excuses I'm going to tell you the news that you all knew was coming:

I don't know if I have the time to get back into writing on FanFiction.

I have been on here since March of 2009, so almost exactly 5 years ;) When I started using FanFiction it was a small community of serious-but-too-self-conscious-to-post-their-stories-anywhere-but-anonymously-online writers. It was nice. You could actually give others constructive criticism without them getting insulted. You could ask others for their opinions on your stories without expecting a stupid answer. You could write your thoughts without getting bashed or trolled about what fan-bases you are involved in (Ahem... Twilight (The BOOK), which I liked LONG before it became popular and made into that awful movie. I liked it simply based on Stephanie Meyer's writing capabilities and the fact that it was the first Young Adult novel I had ever read. Even though it is hard to form an opinion on it anymore it still has a special place in my heart because it was the series that got me into reading YA, which led to my fascination of writing YA.).

Anyways, almost everybody on this site was actually in to writing, not just because they fell in love with a book/movie/T.V. series, but because they actually liked to write. My point is that I didn't like it when FanFiction became well known. I didn't like it when the majority of people who wrote on it were pre-teens who either didn't have a clue how, or just didn't care to learn how to properly write. I didn't like that everybody who wasn't a part of the FanFiction community had to be full of hate for it and think lowly of those who used it. FanFiction used to be a safe place for young writers to improve their skill through writing fan-based stories that would never actually be published but would still show their writing skill to the world without having to worry about stolen ideas. Now? Now, I don't know if I like FanFiction at all.

I was only 12 years old when I wrote my first stories and published them to FanFiction. At the time I was probably one of the annoying pre-teens who could spell but didn't know much else. But I have to say, as someone who is dedicated to writing, my skill and technique have improved greatly. I continued to learn as much as I could over the years and my writing style has changed so drastically that everything I have posted on FanFiction is almost unrecognizable to me anymore. This is another reason I would have troubles continuing any of my stories. I would have to re-write everything I have ever posted and it would take a lot of time and dedication that I really should be putting other places.

I can try.

I really can try to re-write and continue my stories. But I just thought I would give you a heads-up that it is possible that you will never hear from me again. If I get any free time I will consider starting up one or two of my stories again (maybe in the summer) but I'm sorry to say that FanFiction will be coming last on my priority list from now on.

Xoxo

Don't take this personally. I love you all so much for staying alerted and/or following for so long and I every time I debate whether or not to write another chapter for any FanFic of mine, it will be all of you on my mind :)

SK


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